World Migration Report Current Affairs

According to UN World Migration Report (2018) Indian diaspora is world’s largest, with slightly more than 15.6 million people from India living overseas. The report was released by International Organisation for Migration.

The Indian diaspora constitutes 6% of the total number of international migrants (people living outside the country of their birth), which was estimated at 243 million in 2015.

Key Facts

According to the report, Mexico has the second largest diaspora after India followed by Russia (3rd), China (4th), Bangladesh (5th) and Pakistan (6th). The Gulf nations house biggest share of the Indian diaspora — nearly 3.5 million or 22% of total Indian diaspora.

The global migrants figure has risen by 10% over that recorded in 2010. In other words, out of global population of 7.3 billion, one of every 30 people was migrant in 2015. However, if computed as percentage of world’s population, the growth of diaspora has been largely static, from 3.2% in 2010 to 3.3% in 2015.

Notably, people in working age group, between 20 to 64 years, account for nearly 72% i.e. significant chunk of international migrant population. Nearly half of all the international migrants worldwide in 2015 were born in Asia, primarily originating from India, China and other South Asian countries

Since 1970, the US has been the main destination for international migrants. The number of foreign-born people residing in US has almost quadrupled from fewer than 12 million in 1970 to 46.6 million in 2015 of which nearly 2 million are of Indian origin.

International Organisation for Migration

IOM is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including refugees, internally displaced persons and migrant workers.

IOM was established in 1951 as Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) to help resettle people displaced by World War II. It was granted Permanent Observer status to UN General Assembly in 1992. Cooperation agreement between IOM and the UN was signed in 1996.

IOM works in four broad areas of migration management: Migration and development, Facilitating migration, Regulating migration and Forced migration. It has 166 member states, a further 8 states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries, It has more than 9,500 staff and 450 offices worldwide.